Spinal Cord Anatomy and Ascending and Descending Pathways Flashcards
What do somatosensory afferents and motor efferents to skeletal muscle travel by?
Spinal cord
Spinal cord function
Receives 1o afferent fibres from peripheral receptors
Sends motor axons to skeletal muscle
Communications between brain and periphery
Preganglionic neurons of SYM and some of PSYM
How many spinal nerves does the spinal cord produce?
31
What are the enlargements associated with?
Cervical = upper limb Lumbar = lower limb
What occurs at each segment?
Rootlets from dorsal and ventral produce ant and post rootlets
Passing through subarachnoid space until reach vertebral formina
Post root is enlarge by dorsal root ganglion
Fuse = mixed spinal nerve= ant and post rami
What is the spinal cord continuous with?
Medulla below foramen magnum
Tapered cone shape spinal cord terminates as?
Conus medularis
What does the conus medularis continue as?
Filum terminale (thin CT) Anchored to dorsum of coccyx
Where does the spinal cord end?
L1 (L2 at birth)
Where is the dural spinal cord and what does it include?
Below L1
Dorsal and ventral roots of L2 and lower nerves of filum terminale
What is the collection of roots of the filum terminale called?
Cauda equina
Where does the dural sac end?
S2
Dorsal and ventral roots pass out of the sack, remain in dura and travel in spinal canal now in CSF of subarachnoid space
How are the spinal cord meninges continuous with the cranial meninges?
Foramen magnum
What is the spinal cord suspended by?
Denticulate ligament
How is the denticulate ligament formed?
From pial and arachnoid tissue
Dorsal and ventral roots in IVC and dura and arachnoid mater merge with
CT around the nerve
Where is the white mater located on the spinal cord?
Outside
Where is the grey mater located on the spinal cord?
Inner H
What does the white mater consist of?
Longitudinal axons
Glial cells
Blood vessels
What does the grey mater consist of?
Neuronal soma Cell processes Synapses Glia Blood vessels
Where does the small central canal running the length of the spinal cord open and close?
Rostral - opens into 4th ventricle
Caudal - blind ending - medulla?
What occurs if there is damage to the white mater?
No more communication below that level
What occurs if there is damage to the grey mater?
Damage/paralysis in band that is damdaged